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For a real-valued function of a single real variable, the derivative of a function at a point generally determines the best linear approximation to the function at that point. Differential calculus and integral calculus are connected by the fundamental theorem of calculus. This states that differentiation is the reverse process to integration.
The derivative f′(x) of a curve at a point is the slope (rise over run) of the line tangent to that curve at that point. Differential calculus is the study of the definition, properties, and applications of the derivative of a function. The process of finding the derivative is called differentiation. Given a function and a point in the domain ...
For real-valued functions of a real variable, y = f(x), its ordinary derivative dy/dx is geometrically the gradient of the tangent line to the curve y = f(x) at all points in the domain. Partial derivatives extend this idea to tangent hyperplanes to a curve. The second order partial derivatives can be calculated for every pair of variables:
The partial derivative generalizes the notion of the derivative to higher dimensions. A partial derivative of a multivariable function is a derivative with respect to one variable with all other variables held constant. [1]: 26ff A partial derivative may be thought of as the directional derivative of the function along a coordinate axis.
In calculus, the differential represents the principal part of the change in a function = with respect to changes in the independent variable. The differential is defined by = ′ (), where ′ is the derivative of f with respect to , and is an additional real variable (so that is a function of and ).
Consider the following second-order problem, ′ + + = () =, where = {,, <is the Heaviside step function.The Laplace transform is defined by, = {()} = ().Upon taking term-by-term Laplace transforms, and utilising the rules for derivatives and integrals, the integro-differential equation is converted into the following algebraic equation,
Marston Morse applied calculus of variations in what is now called Morse theory. [6] Lev Pontryagin, Ralph Rockafellar and F. H. Clarke developed new mathematical tools for the calculus of variations in optimal control theory. [6] The dynamic programming of Richard Bellman is an alternative to the calculus of variations. [7] [8] [9] [c]
The calculus has been applied to stochastic partial differential equations as well. The calculus allows integration by parts with random variables; this operation is used in mathematical finance to compute the sensitivities of financial derivatives. The calculus has applications in, for example, stochastic filtering.